WAR reporter Steve Sweeney said on Thursday that Israel deliberately targeted him in an air attack in southern Lebanon.

Mr Sweeney, a former international editor of the Morning Star, was reporting for Russia Today on al-Qasmiyeh bridge in Lebanon’s Tyre region with cameraman Ali Rida when they narrowly escaped an Israeli missile attack.

Both men were later released from hospital after receiving treatment for shrapnel wounds.

Posting to social media after the attack, Mr Sweeney accused Israel of attempting to kill him in a “deliberate” attack.

He also accused Israel of committing war crimes by attacking civilian infrastructure and by targeting journalists.

Mr Sweeney revealed the attack had left a piece of shrapnel deeply embedded in his arm which had to be removed at the hospital.

He said: “This was a deliberate, targeted attack against journalists. But if they think they are going to silence us, if they think we are going to stay out of the field, they are very, very much mistaken.

The Israelis say they had issued an “explicit warning” about operations in the al-Qasmiyeh bridge area “to ensure that civilians distance themselves from the crossings, in order to reduce civilian harm.”